Dr. Frank Akers II, OD

Dr. Frank Akers II has served as an optometrist for more than 25 years, caring for patients in Arizona’s East Valley since 2001. He graduated from Northern Arizona University and then earned his Doctor of Optometry at the Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago, where his wife, Corinne, was completing a graduate degree in occupational therapy. During his training he graduated with honors in several clinical rotations, including primary care, low vision, advanced contact lenses and pediatrics.

His first post after graduating was as a staff optometrist at Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago, providing eye care to an underserved community. That is where he built his depth in ocular disease, managing glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease and hypertensive retinopathy in patients who often arrived late in the course of it. He still describes caring for that population as one of the most rewarding periods of his career.

He returned to Arizona in 2000 to join Rinehart Eyecare Center, where he refined his contact lens work under the mentorship of Dr. John Rinehart, one of the country’s leading contact lens specialists and an internationally recognised lecturer. In 2001 he purchased Atwood Eyecare Center, which became Akers Eyecare Center on Dr. Atwood’s retirement later that year. Difficult contact lens fitting has remained the centre of his clinical work since: keratoconus and irregular corneas, eyes after surgery or injury, and patients told elsewhere that lenses were no longer an option.

Alongside practice he has led the profession in his state and region for nearly two decades. He sat on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Optometric Association from 2007 to 2014 and was elected its President in 2013, and in 2018 the association named him Arizona Optometrist of the Year. He has served on the Board of the Great Western Council of Optometry since 2020 and is its current President, with a term completing in October 2027. From 2005 through 2025 he co-chaired the Bronstein Cornea and Contact Lens Seminar, one of the region’s foremost teaching meetings.

Outside the office he spends his time with Corinne and their family, usually heading to northern Arizona for cooler air and mountain scenery. He is an outdoor enthusiast who trail runs and mountain bikes, and he is active in his local church.